New Delhi: Former World number one Novak Djokovic will be out of the top ten in ATP rankings for the first time in a decade next week. The Serbian has not played since Wimbledon in July after ending his season early due to an elbow injury. Djokovic was set to pull out during quarter-final match-up with Tomas Berdych.
Making things worse for the 12-time Grand Slam champion, Juan Martin del Potro`s win over Robin Haase in the Paris Masters third round on Thursday ensured that former world number one will be ranked lower than 10th for the first time since March 2007. It will effectively end Djokovic's chances of playing in the season-ending ATP Finals, which will be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November.
Djokovic is a four-time year-end No. 1 — in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015.
The 30-year-old is hoping to make his return at the exhibition World Tennis Championship at Abu Dhabi in December.
Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal clinched the year-end No. 1 for a fourth time after beating South Korean Hyeon Chung at the Paris Masters yesterday. In the process, he also broke a number of historical records.
According to ATP World Tour, He is the first player to finish No. 1 four times in non-consecutive years, the first aged over-30 and the first to finish in the top spot four years since he last achieved the feat (2013).
The nine-year gap between his first year-end No. 1 season (2008) and his last (2017) is also a record.
Nadal is the seventh player to finish the year at the pinnacle of men’s professional tennis on four or more occasions, following in the footsteps of Pete Sampras (6), Jimmy Connors and Roger Federer (5), Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe and Novak Djokovic (4).
This is the 14th straight season that the year-end World No. 1 ranking has been held by a member of the ‘Big Four’ — Federer (2004-07, ’09), Nadal (2008, ’10, ’13, ‘17), Djokovic (2011-12, ’14-15) or Murray (2016).
